I flew first class to Japan and paid only $33.64 — here's how I did it

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Korean Air A380Flickr/TravelingOtter

  • During our honeymoon last fall, my wife and I flew from New York to Japan in first class — and only paid $34 each.
  • From big open suites with plush, comfortable seats, to an incredibly delicious six-course meal, plus top-shelf drinks, and a luxurious bed, the long trip flew by.
  • We used the sign-up bonuses from our Chase Sapphire Preferred cards, plus some points from spending and other promotions, to book the flights.
  • By signing up for credit cards and earning the sign-up bonuses, it's easy to book first class travel for virtually free.

Flying for 14 hours in a cramped, upright economy seat with hardly any padding and only 17" of shoulder room is rough. Don't get me wrong, if it's the only affordable option, it's absolutely worthwhile, since the trade-off is that you get to fly around the world and explore totally different and new places.

Unfortunately, with very few exceptions, first class and business class tickets cost a fortune — especially when your flight takes longer than half a day. Generally, the only way to fly in front without paying roughly the same as you would for a small car is to get a free upgrade for having top frequent flyer elite status with an airline, something that usually only applies to traveling consultants. Alternatively, if you're on a business trip, you can ask your office to cover the more comfortable fare, but that perk is usually reserved for top-level executives.

Even if you don't get elite upgrades, but fly relatively often, you can save up frequent flyer miles to upgrade. Unfortunately, most people earn miles more slowly these days than they used to, so this might take a while.

Fortunately for the rest of us, there's a better option to fly in first class, and it's virtually free — earn a credit card sign-up bonus and use that toward the flight.

You can book through your credit card's travel website, although this usually takes a huge amount of points. A better option is to transfer your points to an airline's frequent flyer program, basically turning them into miles. Because of the way frequent flyer programs work, you can usually get a lot more value from a lot fewer miles than credit card points.

That's what my (now) wife and I did when we started planning our honeymoon to Japan and Hawaii. The flight to Japan is scheduled at 14 hours nonstop, which is a brutally long time to spend in a coach seat. We wanted to be more comfortable and, since it was a special trip, we didn't want to land and lose a day or two feeling jet-lagged, achy, and grumpy.

I searched all of the different ways to get to Japan in first or business class using various credit card points, and we decided to fly on Korean Air with a connection in Seoul. While several airlines, including United, Japan Airlines, and All Nippon Airways, offer direct flights between New York and Tokyo, Korean Air offers the most frequent flyer award availability — useful for us, since we only had a little bit of schedule flexibility — and is a transfer partner of Chase, whose points we had already started to earn. Plus, the airline is well-known for offering a fantastic first class experience. Even though it added about three hours to our total transit time, it seemed worthwhile.

Korean Air publishes a frequent flyer award chart, which shows that round-trip tickets between Japan and North America cost 160,000 miles in first class. We only needed one-way tickets, since we'd be heading to Hawaii from Japan, rather than back home, so that's 80,000 miles each — 160,000 total for our two seats.

That seems like a lot, but earning them was easier than you'd expect. I had already opened a Chase Sapphire Preferred card, earning me 50,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points after I spent $4,000 in the first three months. A few months later, my (at the time) fiancée opened the Preferred, too, earning the same bonus, and, because she applied through a "refer a friend" link I sent her, I earned 10,000 points.

I also opened an earlier version of the Chase Freedom Unlimited, earning 15,000 bonus points, in order to pay for the engagement ring over time without paying interest. Beyond that, we each referred several friends to the card, paid for a few work trips (which our offices reimbursed), and earned 2x points on our personal dining and travel. Sooner than you'd expect, we had more than enough points between us.

To earn the points even faster, I could have opened another card, too, such as the Chase Ink Business Preferred, since I did a little bit of freelance work on the side — that would have earned me 80,000 points after I spent $5,000 during the first three months. If I needed just a few more points, I could have also opened a SKYPASS Visa card issued by US Bank — it only offers a 15,000 point sign-up bonus, but almost as soon as I created a Korean Air Skypass frequent flyer account online, I started getting targeted offers in the mail for a 50,000 point bonus. I should really jump on that one of these days.

(Instead of the Sapphire Preferred, you could sign-up for the Chase Sapphire Reserve— a beefed-up version of the Preferred — instead. You can read more about the differences between the two cards here.)

I searched for flights on the right dates with two award seats available in first or business class (I also used an awesome tool called ExpertFlyer to search, but that's optional). Korean has a weird rule where you can't book award tickets for anyone but yourself unless you can prove that you're related — since we weren't married yet, my fiancée made her own account. We each transferred the 80,000 points from our Chase cards to our Korean Air Skypass accounts, booked one ticket each, and chose seats to make sure that we were next to each other. We also had to pay $33.66 each in taxes and fees.

Just for fun, I looked up the price of a cash ticket and found that it was going for $10,645.65 each.

That meant that, after factoring in those taxes and fees, each Chase point we redeemed for the flight effectively got us 13.3¢ worth of first class value.

So what was it like flying to our honeymoon on a nearly $11,000 flight (each)? Read on to find out!

Click here to learn more about the Chase Sapphire Preferred card from Insider Picks' partner The Points Guy.

Click here to learn more about the Chase Sapphire Reserve card from Insider Picks' partner The Points Guy.

Click here to learn more about the Chase Ink Business Preferred card from Insider Picks' partner The Points Guy.

Click here to learn more about the Chase Freedom Unlimited card from Insider Picks' partner The Points Guy.

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Korean Air currently flies to 11 US cities — however, as a member of the SkyTeam alliance, you can connect on a Delta flight from another airport on a single itinerary. In New York, Korean operates out of JFK's notorious Terminal 1. We arrived early, and found a completely chaotic security line.

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It took about 30 minutes to get through security — apparently there was a holdup because the TSA was waiting for a K9 specialist as part of its standard screening. Once we were air-side, we went toward the Korean Air lounge. There are two separate areas — one for business class passengers and Priority Pass members, and one reserved just for first class passengers.

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The Korean Air first class lounge at JFK isn't the most luxurious nor exciting, like airlines like Etihad or even Virgin America offer in the US, but it's still a relaxing, comfortable, and quiet place to spend the time before your flight. There were snacks, soft drinks, tea and coffee, plus beer, wine, and some spirits, all self-serve.

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Right around boarding time, we left the lounge and headed toward the gate, where we got the first sight of the massive, double-decker A380 that we would be flying.

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The upper deck of Korean Air's A380 is business, or "Prestige" class, while the lower deck has the small first class cabin in the front, and economy throughout the rest. We were among the first to board, although a Korean Air gate agent mentioned that first class passengers usually prefer to board last. Ah well.

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The first class cabin has a total of 12 open suites (or "pods") laid out in a 1-2-1 configuration. There are only three rows. The seats are spacious, just under 27" wide, and can fold flat and combine with an ottoman to create a 79" long bed. The seat was extremely comfortable.

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Solo travelers will be happy in the window seats, while couples can sit in the middle. Those middle seats have a privacy divider which can be raised or lowered. The suites come with a ton of storage space in the areas to the side, as well as a reading lamp (although it looks a bit like a soda fountain).

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After we found our seats, the flight attendants and purser came by to introduce themselves and welcome us, and offered us a snack of warm macadamia nuts and a drink. I asked for water, which the flight attendant brought out with a set of Bose noise-cancelling headphones to use on board.

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We were also each given an amenity kit, which was stocked with things like a toothbrush and toothpaste, earplugs, a sleep mask, and moisturizer, and a set of pajamas in our sizes.

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It's a little hard to convey just how spacious everything felt. Needless to say, as travelers used to cramming into coach, it felt like such an awesome novelty. Eventually four or five other passengers boarded (including celebrity Bella Hadid!), so the cabin was only half-full for the whole flight.

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Really, though, the amount of legroom is ridiculous. With my seat up, if I extended my legs all the way, I couldn't even reach the ottoman.

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After a relatively short taxi and takeoff, we were in the air and on our way! Shortly after reaching 10,000 feet, the cabin crew came through offering us another drink — this time, I opted for champagne, which turned out to be a pleasant rosé variety. The flight attendants also helped us extend our tray tables from the panels next to us, and set the table for the first meal service on our 2 p.m. flight. First, there was an amuse-bouche — the start of a first class feast — of mozzarella, sun-dried tomato, and an olive on a piece of toast with some pesto.

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Next came a bread basket (I had a piece of garlic bread), as well as a foie gras appetizer. Foie gras is something I usually avoid eating, but figured that if there was ever a time to try it...well, it might as well be at 35,000 feet. I also asked for a glass of white wine. We had an opportunity to order our preferred entrées off a menu around now. There were a few Western and Korean options, but we both opted for Korean Air's famous bibimbap.

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Next came one of the tastiest and richest cream of mushroom soups I've ever tried.

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Then a salad cart, from which the flight attendants offered you a custom salad. I went for something light and simple, and only had a few bites, because I was getting full and had to save room for the main event...

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...the bibimbap! This beef bibimbap, served with rice and chili paste, was (and is) easily the best thing I've ever eaten on a plane.

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Finally, there was a fruit and cheese course...

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...and a sweet dessert of chocolate cake and vanilla ice cream with raspberries. I was quite full at this point, but figured I had to have a few bites anyway to see how it was, and for the sake of the review (it was decadent, by the way).

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One of the features of the Korean Air A380 is a bar and lounge area toward the rear of the business class cabin. Sponsored by Absolut, the bar is staffed by a flight attendant who offers business and first class passengers specialty cocktails and snacks. We woke up after a few hours, and decided to stretch our legs and check out the bar. It's a cool, chic design, and made for a nice change of scenery.

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There's also a small self-serve bar at the front of the first class cabin, which features snacks and a few top shelf liquors. I decided to have a glass of Johnnie Walker Blue Label.

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After another snooze, the cabin lights came up — we were about an hour from Seoul. There were a few choices for a "light" meal — I went with the mixed seafood udon. It was tasty, but I was still pretty full so I only had a few bites.

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We landed on time with about 70 minutes until our next flight. We cleared customs — a quick and efficient process in Seoul — and went to the Seoul first class lounge. This massive, multi-section space had a ton of seating area, plus a much more substantial food selection then the lounge in New York. We sat for a few minutes and used the Wi-Fi to check our phones, then headed to the gate for the short flight to Japan.

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The A330 we flew on the segment between Seoul and Tokyo had one row of first class in a 2-2-2 configuration. The seats and layout are actually the same as business class, but the service is upgraded. Korean Air doesn't let you book a mixed-class award ticket, so since we were in first class on the first flight, we would be for the second, too. While the seats weren't in fully enclosed suites, they did fold flat into beds (not that we needed that for a two-hour flight).

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We were offered macadamia nuts and a welcome drink again. This time, on the flight attendant's suggestion, I had a glass of a Japanese plum liquor called Choya Umeshu on ice.

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This flight had a dinner service, since it was around 7 p.m. To start, we had an appetizer of king crab with mango jelly, an apple slice, pesto, and a roasted cherry tomato — it was really tasty! I also had a shockingly tasty Korean style beef bulgogi with rice. I forgot to take photos, though — despite getting some sleep on the previous flight, I was a little fried at this point. Fortunately...

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...by the time dinner was over, there was just a little bit of time left to lounge before we began our landing approach. So after around 20 hours in transit, what did I think of Korean Air's first class?

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There are no "buts" about it; flying in first class is awesome. I mean, really awesome.

Between the massive, spacious seat, the incredible food, the impeccable service, and the large, comfy bed, there's simply no better way to fly (except in a private jet, and paradoxically, those might not be as comfortable because they're so small).

The big question is whether it was worth booking a connecting flight in order to fly first class, instead of a nonstop — adding about four hours to our transit time. In a perfect world, we would have been a little bit more flexible and could have waited for award space to become available on other airlines that fly direct — such as United or ANA — but in reality, the short connection didn't really feel that bad. I would absolutely book first class over a nonstop in coach again — I'd also book a connection if it meant that I could plan more easily.

Going back to coach was not an easy thing after this luxury.

Fortunately, thanks to the fact that there are tons of opportunities to earn points and miles with credit card sign-up bonuses, spending, and other methods, I'm already looking forward to my next first class and business class flights!

Click here to learn more about the Chase Sapphire Preferred card from Insider Picks' partner The Points Guy.

Click here to learn more about the Chase Sapphire Reserve card from Insider Picks' partner The Points Guy.

Click here to learn more about the Chase Ink Business Preferred card from Insider Picks' partner The Points Guy.

Click here to learn more about the Chase Freedom Unlimited card from Insider Picks' partner The Points Guy.

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SEE ALSO: Here are all the amazing ways you can use the points from your Chase credit card

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